Setting: Ricks, BOM religion class.

Yep. If you aren't donating all your unwanted items to Deseret Industries, you are guilty of loving $$$$ more than the lord.

This was pre-Ebay and Craigslist. (Well, that dates me.) I bet that instructor is including those sites in his contemporary sinful list.

Thousands of LDS folks have garage/yard sales. Been to them myself. Not everyone is on the "route" to give their stuff to DI.
I have been going to Goodwill and Salvation Army with LDS folks from the 60's.

I'm not claiming it was doctrine. Just that I was taught it in a religion class I attended at Ricks.

I too know lots of LDS that have garage sales.

I am simply curious if anyone else was taught this.

Queen of Denial Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm not claiming it was doctrine. Just that I was
> taught it in a religion class I attended at
> Ricks.
>
I wonder if this was the same person who got the ball rolling about how oral sex between marriage partners is a sin. I suppose this kind of nonsense is like gospel truth in mormondumb, because these people really believe they will be a god someday.

Glad2B Out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2011 12:52AM by glad2bout.

However, my friend's mother was around for that. She said she remembers the women being up in arms!

YES, we absolutely were taught this in stake conference from the Stake Pres.

A few people disobeyed him and had them anyway, but most of us were too scared and took even really good valuable stuff to DI.

I have never had a garage sale in my life, even though I wanted to, because I was taught that. Also my husband said absolutely not because he had heard it taught too.

SO, YES, it was taught in more than one place. It might even be in the bishie's handbook.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2011 01:43PM by think4u.

In Southern Calif. in the mid 1970's, we were told that we were selfish to have garage yards-that must donate to the church!

I also grew up in Southern Cal in the 70s and was told the same thing. It was mentioned in Seminary and my TBM friend said they were taught to donate everything to DI...that one shouldn't make a personal profit off of it.

I would always think about that when my own family had garage sales and then went out to dinner on what we had made. :)

Carrie

carrietchr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I also grew up in Southern Cal in the 70s and was
> told the same thing. It was mentioned in Seminary
> and my TBM friend said they were taught to donate
> everything to DI...that one shouldn't make a
> personal profit off of it.
>
> I would always think about that when my own family
> had garage sales and then went out to dinner on
> what we had made. :)
>
> Carrie


I lived in So. CA in the 70's..that's where we went to Goodwill and Salvation Army stores for used items. We didn't have garage/yard sales very often. Those were rare in the area I lived in.
Sure, we gave to DI ...IF we had what they needed on their list when they came through.
But that was very minor.

Actually, donations to DI were among my "first straws"

The Mormons, a s a g r o u p; 'donate' stuff that is often so horribly worn you couldn't even make a dog bed out of it!

I had a mormon once who gave me a bag of maternity clothes with the adage "You sew don't you?"

Ugh! Stained, worn thin and three corner rips you couldn't mend in very thin cheap cloth!

The DI in our area sold baby clothes that were worn and faded for about 5 bucks an outfit when you could go to Mervyns sale rack and find something comparable for 6 which had never been worn!
This was at a time when minimum wage was $4.50 an hour!
so 'the poor' whom the DI "serves" was charging an hour for a piddly childs' outfit.

The small appliances were never checked to see if they worked, just priced and put on the shelf! Lucky me, I was only getting some things for my child to take apart so he'd leave my stuff alone! But what a rip-off, if I'd needed the item to work!!!

I never heard that not donating to DI was a sin, but I often thought what was donated was a sin!

Mormon Observer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Mormons, a s a g r o u p; 'donate' stuff
> that is often so horribly worn you couldn't even
> make a dog bed out of it!
>


I found that the quality of items at a D.I. are relative to their location.

I found a lot of nice stuff at the D.I in Mesa, AZ. I attributed this to tons of rich mormons in the area. Case in point: I bought a solid oak dinette with 4 chairs in the Mesa D.I. for $50. Immaculate condition. I actually bought clothes there too when I was a super-poor newlywed that I was comfortable wearing.

Yet, the D.I. in Rexburg, at least when I shopped there, was pretty much overpriced junk. This may have changed. That last time I was in Rexburg, the ratio of mansions on the hill had increased significantly.

I would venture this is the case with other donation dependent stores.

The DI's in Utah are loaded with a lot of good stuff, and they are packed with consumers all the time now that the economy is bad. I know because I live near one and the parking lot is always cram packed.

We were told that they , however , are given a lot of crap that they just have to throw out, and that we should only give good stuff to the DI- NEVER any crap, that was made very clear in my ward in SLC more than once.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2011 01:50PM by think4u.

I wasn't taught this though I'm sure some TBM preach it. I get a chuckle now thinking of one of my BYU roommates who would routinely cruise the DI's and other thrift stores for treasures he'd put up on Ebay for a tidy profit.

Just when I thought I couldn't be shocked anymore!

I don't do yard sales because I don't like to get up early, and I'm a lousy salesman. I usually give my stuff to Goodwill unless it's junk. Then it goes to landfill.

We have DI thrift store in Sacramento. Inside, it smells like a dead skunk wrapped in a dirty diaper that's been rolled around in an ashtray. I only went there once.

But the concept of sin being involved in the turnover of used possessions, you can't get any dumber than that!

Never mind. I believe it; it sometimes takes a while to sink in...

Here's a free cab ride to the top...

My parents taught this actually. We only had one yard sale the entire time I was growing up and it was a neighborhood one, with all the TBM families on our street. And of course, we paid tithing on the stuff we sold...

My TBm sister will not ever have a garage sale even though she has lots of crap she needs to get rid of. She thinks it should only be donated to D.I. My mother was always trying to give stuff to them that was garbage and I told her they would just throw it out. She thought they had a whole bunch of people who would refurbish non-working appliances and furniture. I told her they don't and don't want trash. Yes, they think it is a sin to hold a garage sale.

edited to correct a typo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2011 02:07PM by gemini.

IMO thrift stores throw out the majority of items that are donated. They have to.

My sister-in-law used to have a saying - "Too nasty (even) for the thrift store." We dumpsters in my community and sometimes people will leave certain items out, thinking that others might be interested in them. 90% of the time, they are delusional. I think that people have a tendency to over-value their used items.

...doing refurbishing. They do a nice job, too.


Basically they only throw stuff away if it is downright nasty.

I was taught this and donated all my stuff to DI.

I give EVERYTHING to the DI because I'm lazy. I can earn more money working (I can work as much or as little as I choose--so I just work a little extra).

So--I don't give everything away to be a support to the DI. I don't want to be BOTHERED with a garage sale.

And here in Utah--it is a "sport"--my elderly dad even got into it and he is not a shopper in the least.

We have a garage sale just about every year, and we usually take what we don't sell to Goodwill, or DI if the trailer is in town. Not one of our TBM friends around here has said a thing to us.
What drives me crazy is that we literally sell our stuff for pennies on the dollar, as is typical for garage sales, and my wife still tithes on the garage sale money as if it were "income." Umm, Honey, we sold the stuff at a LOSS, its not "income"!

Only on Sundays.

Could you deduct the value of your donation to DI from your tithing?

I'm sure there were many in the church who pushed this though, along with other sins like drinking Coke, oral sex, allowing kids to play with their friends on Sunday, an on, and on.

What a life Mormons have? :)

The DI is my personal landfill....no entry fees.

My parents are hoarders so they never give anything away.
Anything I have that is still in good condition I give to my children or friends who are associated with groups who help people.

And the DI gives you a tax deduction form(blank).

I also think they are overpriced for the quality of some of the stuff they sell.

I went to scores of garage sales because I had a second business as an antique dealer. I always knew the Mormon sales, lots of worn out clothing and broken toys. I moved quickly on down the street.

I also held sales, always planned and staged, often made a thousand dollars or so. The profits always went back into my antique business. It paid for several missions and a couple of temple marriages.

Only real negative on garage sales, you were not available to be called by the elder's quorum on Saturday mornings, or having your truck borrowed (maybe that is not a negative).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2011 11:22PM by george.

I used to love going to DI, but now have a hard time shopping there knowing where the money goes. I had a neighbor once who worked there and he was always coming home with random stuff. He told us that once something sits on the shelves there long enough, the workers can keep it or THEY THROW IT OUT. Remember the adverts claiming most of it went to third world countries? Liars.

I don't donate there ever. I save all my donations and take them to the Hope Chest thrift store in Saint George. All the proceeds go to charity and they act so excited and thank me profusely for donating. Not so much when I used to give to DI...

I remember being told to donate instead of selling our excess stuff. Since I thought the Salvation Army & Goodwill stores did more for the community, I always took my stuff there. I also preferred shopping in their stores. The DI is overpriced on so many items.

Near where I live, over the last year, Goodwill stores were limiting the time you could donate. They had run out of places to store things and weed out the junk.

Many people were doing major house cleaning and were trying to take junk and trash to Goodwill instead to the dump.

The dump cost here are about $90/ton and one of the dumps in the area require a picture ID to dump.

I live in one of the bluest states in the Union and it's funny that you need a picture ID to dump garbage but don't need ID to vote.

Church leaders used to harp that they were embarrassed every time the DI trailer was dropped off in the stake parking lot because it went back empty!

Sooooooooooooooo...

It was announced 3 times during sacrament meeting to clean out your house and donate good, quality items to DI. But the date was not mentioned.

My TBM had me round up unused church stuff~ outdated church manuals, unwanted copies of the BoM. And then some broken items that my Mom thought the DI would fix in their magical "fix-it" shop in the back of the store.

I was with my Mom when we went on Thursday evening to "donate". No DI trailer, but others had already dumped off junk~ lots of worn out couches, dirty matresses and appliances that should have been junked. We dropped our boxed stuff to the pile.

And on Sunday the leaders were really pissed off!

They were upset about the mess and quality of donations. It was such a mess that I was "volunteered" as a scout to come clean up the mess on Tuesday night. We had to load it up and the DI person was very picky and didn't want it. So while the DI guy argued with the YM advisor, we scouts were told to get the junk out of the parking lot and into the trailer.

Does DI in Utah still require an MBA to become a store manager?

I'm 'full' now, but when I buy something at a thrift store (mostly LPs & CDs & DVDs) I do as much as possible to make sure they're useable before I buy, especially electronics (TVs, etc)

When mom and dad downsized their TBM friends organized and ran their yard sale.

My sisters' Young Women's groups had them most years to defray the costs of girls' camp.

ETA: You give the stuff that DOESN'T sell to DI.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2021 04:53AM by scmd1.